Behavioral, Self, and Social Control Predictors of Desistance From Crime

Abstract

Although the literature has generated a large body of knowledge on the development of criminal activity, much remains unknown about the normative process of desistance. This study investigates desistance from self-reported criminal activity among a sample of French-Canadian men who were adjudicated during adolescence and interviewed on various occasions through midlife. Desistance is defined as the dynamic process characterized by a progressive decline in offending versatility. Latent trajectory modeling was used to test two models, the launch and contemporaneous effect models, accounting for the effects of deviant behavior and measures of self- and social control on desistance. The launch effect model suggests that very few self- or social control variables can predict trajectories of desistance from crime throughout a 25-year period. The contemporaneous effect model reveals that some measures of self- and social control accelerate (or restrain) the desistance process, but only at specific developmental periods.